Oatmeal Wheat Bread (pp 671-672)

Some cliches exist for a reason, this is one of them: there's nothing better than a loaf of bread out of the oven. It 'smells up the place real good', it tastes great, and it's still warm.

Meez:

You'll need 2C whole milk, 1C old-fashioned rolled oats (I thought these would be harder to find, they weren't), warm water to activate your 2Tb yeast, 1/2C honey, 1/2 stick melted butter, 2C whole wheat flour (called for stone-ground, I just used regular, King Arthur to be specific), 2C unbleached AP flour, 1 t salt, and 1 lg egg beaten w/1 t water to make a wash.

Procedure:

Heat up the milk, add the oatmeal to hydrate. Stir your warm water and yeast together, add 1 t honey. Let stand 'til foamy.  stir together yeast mix with butter and the rest of the honey, add to oatmeal. In a large bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 c AP flour, and the salt. Add in the oatmeal-honey-yeast mix, stirring until you've got a basic dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and work the dough, adding more flour until it is only slightly sticky. Shape this into a ball and put it in an oiled bowl to rise and double at room temp for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. I put mine in the fridge overnight. Butter 2 loaf pans. Split the dough in half and shape them both into basic loaf shapes. Put them in the pans, seam side down. Cover with a towel (the book says no to terry cloth but that's what I use in the kitchen and no problems there) and let rise for about an hour or until doubled. Preheat the oven to 375. LIGHTLY brush the tops of the loaves with the egg wash. Don't overdo it or it'll run down the sides and you'll have some sticking issues (one of my loaves got shredded due to this). Sprinke lightly with some oats.

Doughy goodness

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Depan them and let them cool on a rack.

Loafy goodness

So, how was it?

This was a good, solid loaf. It also toasted up nicely.

What did you learn?

The egg-wash thing, don't overdo it. Egg proteins are basically like glue. They'll grab on and stick to the pan.

Recommend it?

Indeed. This is a good loaf to try. I'd make it again.

Bonus pic: Pickled peppers (chiles)

http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2009/03/michael-symons-pickled-chillis.html
I'll let you know how they turn out.

Greek Beef Stew (p. 450)

I made this for a party. Everyone said they liked it. I thought it wasn't bad. Two things jumped out at me while I read this recipe - a) the meat isn't browned and b) there isn't a whole lot of liquid.

Meez:

You'll want 2 pounds of boiling onions (the book says these are 1-1 1/2 inches in diameter, I substituted 2 1/2 bags of pearl onions), 1 cup chopped parsley, 6 oz tomato paste, 1/2 cup dry white wine (went with a cheap pinot grigio), 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (I plan on making my own red wine and sherry vinegars in the near future), 2 tsp salt (kosher, as always), 1 tsp freshly ground cumin, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp crumbled dried oregano, 1 Turkish bay leaf (go Penzeys!), 3 pounds boneless chuck, cut into 1 1/2 cubes, 1/2 pound feta, 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, and orzo.

Procedure:
Preheat to 325. The book said to blanch the onions first to make peeling easier, this seemed like a larger pain in the butt than just plain peeling, in retrospect, blanching probably would have gone faster. Throw this in a big oven safe, lidded pot. Add everything else except the feta, walnuts, and orzo.

 All potted up

Bring this to a boil while stirring (to be fair, with as little liquid as is present, it's a little difficult to determine when it hits the boil). When I saw steam and some hissing, I lidded it up and put it in the preheated oven. Let it sit in there for about 2 1/2 hours. When that time is close to up, prepare your orzo. Lay down the orzo, spoon the stew on top, and add some feta and walnuts.

Ready to go

So, how was it?

Not bad. The combination of the spices, beef, and onions and the small amount of liquid made this a heartier meal than a regular stew. It was even better the next day.

What did you learn?
Browning isn't crucial to stew success (although it helps). I was advised to add the cinnnamon later in the game since it wasn't as detectable as the cumin and would help balance that out. Cinnamon is probably more volatile than cumin. I'd add to that the idea of adding the parsley in the last 10 - 20 minutes of cooking instead of at the beginning. I like my greens green.

Recommend it?

It was definitely different. I liked how it laid on the orzo instead of dripping everywhere. I can recommend this if you've got the time and the ingredients.

RIP Gourmet 1940 - 2009

Gourmet's last issue is November 2009. This is sad news.